The Traumatic Experiences as the Hindrance of Charlie’s Personality Development in Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, A Psychosocial Analysis.

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10211144 ERATURE OF LANGU ARTA STA 2016 the Hindra in Stephen er, A Psych

sis Requirement sh Languag by: Arista 4024

E STUDY PR UAGES AND TE UNIVE 6

ance of Cha Chbosky’s osocial Ana

s for the At ge and Litera

ROGRAM D ARTS ERSITY arlie’s s alysis ttainment of ature f a

DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to my greatest family, my SUPER

parents, my sister and brother, who always give their

never-ending love.  

                                   

vi  

MOTTOS

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” Jallaludin Rumi

“When is the help of Allah?” Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near.

(Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 214)

“Indeed, with hardship will be ease.” (Surah Ash-Sharh, Verse

6)                                

viii  

TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE ... i

APPROVAL SHEET ... ii

RATIFICATION SHEET ... iii

PERNYATAAN ... iv

DEDICATION ... v

MOTTOS ... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii

LIST OF FIGURES ... xii

ABSTRACT ... xiii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1

A.Background of the Problem ... 1

B.Research Focus ... 5

C.Research Question ... 6

D.Significance of the Research ... 6

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ... 8

A.Literature and Psychology ... 8

B.Erikson’s Psychosocial Development ... 11

1. The Stages of Psychosocial Development ... 17

a. Trust vs. Mistrust ... 17

c. Initiative vs. Guilt ... 18

d. Industry vs. Inferiority ... 19

e. Identity vs. Identity Confusion ... 20

f. Intimacy vs. Isolation ... 20

g. Generativity vs. Stagnation ... 21

h. Integrity vs. Despair ... 21

2. Identity Crisis in Adolescence: Identity vs. Identity Confusion ... 23

a. Identity Diffusion ... 25

b. Identity Foreclosure ... 25

c. Negative Identity ... 26

C.Background of The Novel ... 26

1. The Author ... 26

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower ... 28

D.Previous Research Findings ... 29

E. Conceptual Framework ... 31

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 33

A.Research Design ... 33

B.The Data and Sources of the Data ... 33

C.Research Instruments ... 34

D.The Technique of Data Collection ... 35

E. The Data Analysis ... 37

F. Trustworthiness ... 38

x  

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 41

A.Charlie’s Failure in the Fifth Stage ... 41

1. Identity Diffusion ... 43

a. Acute upset ... 44

b. Inability to concentrate ... 45

c. Excessive Self-Awareness ... 48

d. Inability to make decision ... 48

2. Identity Foreclosure ... 52

a. The excessive involvement of parents ... 53

b. Interruption of self-potential ... 55

c. The premature establishment of sense of self ... 56

3. Negative Identity ... 56

a. Performance of undesirable choice of an action to gain an acceptable identity ... 57

b. A denial action toward the rule in family. ... 59

B.Charlie’s Failure toward Charlie’s Personality in the Sixth Stage ... 61

1. Intimacy ... 62

a. Participation in groups ... 63

b. Encouragement in a worthless relationship ... 64

2. Isolation ... 68

a. The feeling of loneliness ... 69

b. Alienation ... 70

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS ... 74 References ... 75 Appendix ... 77

xii  

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 : The Psychosocial Development Stages…... 17 Figure 2 : Conceptual Framework ... 22

                                       

THE TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES AS THE HINDRANCE OF CHARLIE’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN STEPHEN

CHBOSKY’S THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, A PSYCHOSOCIAL ANALYSIS

By Tria Nur Arista 10211144024

ABSTRACT

This research aims to identify how traumatic experiences become the hindrance for the main character of The Perks of Being a Wallflower to handle the fifth stage of psychosocial development, and to explain the impact of this failure to his personality in the sixth stage. To answer the objectives, this research employs the psychosocial theory by Erikson.

This research used a qualitative research with content analysis method. The main source of this research was a novel entitled The Perks of being a Wallflower. The data were in the form of expressions used to convey the psychosocial development of the main character in the fifth and sixth stage proposed in Erikson’s theory. The researcher became the primary instrument of this research, while the secondary instruments were the data sheets. The research analysis was conducted through five steps: reading and re-reading, classifying and categorizing, interpreting and scrutinizing the meaning of the data, checking the measure of worthiness by triangulation, and making conclusions based on the results of the analysis.

The results show two important points. Firstly, a psychosocial crisis occurs in the main character’s life based on Erikson’s psychosocial development theory i.e. Identity vs. Role Confusion. In this stage, the result shows that the main character experiences traumatic experiences, which make him suffer from three major problems of identity confusion in his adolescence period: identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, and negative identity. The failure brings impact on his personality in the later stage: intimacy crisis and isolation. It can be seen through his inability to make an intimate relationship with others, which makes him feel lonely and suffer from depression.

Keywords: traumatic experience, psychosocial development, Erikson, personality development, The Perks of being a Wallflower

1  

A. Background of the Study

Every human being does not possess innately their personality when they were born. Freist (2008: 8) says that, “personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior.” It means that personality is about the way individuals behave and it can be the sign to determine what kind of people they are. According to Santrock (2002: 16), there are classifications of developmental periods, infants, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood development. Each stage has its own roles and has significant influences for the next stage in shaping human personality.

The consistency of human personality will grow to be an identity. Every human being must achieve their self-identity in life, no matter a good one or a bad one. Based on James (in Erikson, 1968: 19), self-identity is when individuals intensely feel their life and know who they really are and how they fit in the society. The process of gaining self-identity occurs through the lifespan, so that the experience in the childhood will significantly contribute to the personality in adulthood stage. In addition, individuals’ response to the social phenomenon around them can determine the identity they will gain.

The environment around individuals has a big role in guiding them to achieve the proper personality development. A good environment will guide individuals in gaining their self-identity. On the other hand, individuals who live in a conflicting

situation will gain unhealthy personality. In fact, traumatic experience can be considered as a conflicting situation since it strongly influences human psychological development. Individuals with traumatic experience have pressure in their life because the traumatic events that ever happened to them are really hurting. Bloom (2003: 2) states that,

a traumatic experience impacts the entire person. The way we think, the way we learn, the way we remember things, the way we feel about ourselves, the way we feel about other people, and the way we make sense of the world are all profoundly altered by traumatic experience.

The above statement means that traumatic experience can disturb the whole person’s personality and characterization, and it will happen for a long-term. Traumatic experience is an event that can make anyone feel insecure caused by physically or emotionally harmful treatment they receive in their life. A traumatic event usually leads the victim to feel a long-term anxiety and it will disturb individuals’ emotional stability. The examples of such events that commonly happen in the reality are accidents, sexual assault, and the sudden death of a loved one. Actually, the main point about trauma is whether individuals can overwhelm their hurting experience or not. It is about individuals’ ability in dealing with their bad experience related to their psychological condition. As stated by Giller (1999: 1), trauma in everyday language is a highly stressful event, but it is actually referring to extreme stress that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. Therefore, the word trauma here is not about the worst experience, whether physical or emotional harm that they have received, but about how individuals have the ability to cope with their life after experiencing very bad or worst experience.

   

The human personality development that is influenced by the environment around individuals is in accordance with Erikson’s psychosocial theory. Erikson believes that human personality development is highly influenced by the social and historical factor. Therefore, the social condition around individuals and the experience in the past they once witness is very influential for their personality development. Erikson’s theory intends to say that individuals have to pass eight stages of personality development which occurs throughout the life span. Each stage has different crisis, and the way individuals deal with the problem in the early stage will influence the result of their personality condition in the following stage.

From all crises of Erikson’s psychosocial theory, he emphasizes that the most crucial period is the fifth stage, which happens in adolescence. Erikson (1980: 94) mentions that this period is the time when the childhood ends and the youth begins. This is the time for individuals to enlarge their social interaction and connect with more people, who come from various background cultures. Individuals who succeed to solve the crisis at this stage will achieve the sense of identity. The achievement of individuals in earlier stage will highly contribute to them in handling the crisis in this period. The result whether individuals’ personality grows healthy or not depends on how they handle each crisis of psychosocial development.

In The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky, there is a boy named Charlie who has traumatic experiences in his childhood, which make him fail to deal with two crises in his psychosocial development. Charlie lives in

an environment that does not help him to deal with his traumatic experiences and does not support his psychosocial development. In addition, the fact shows that Charlie is sexually assaulted by his beloved Aunt when he was a child. Then, he also has to face the sudden death of his Aunt and his best friend after experiencing many conflicts in his mind. These conditions lead him to have a difficulty to interact with the society, and even he is called as “a wallflower” by his friends.

Charlie’s traumatic experiences that occur in his childhood have great influence to his psychological condition. He is really hurt by what his Aunt has done to him. His memory in the past always haunts him and disturbs his emotional stability. As the consequence, he has low self-esteem and difficulties to express his feeling like what the common teenagers do. This issue often happens in the real society, where the case of sexual assault as a traumatic experience toward children is increasing and it influences their later ability in dealing with issues or problems in the real society. Therefore, The Perks of Being a Wallflower reflects the facts that really happen in society.

From the description above, it is desirable to discuss the effects of the traumatic experience toward individuals’ psychosocial development. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a novel that brings the issue about the traumatic experience and the effects toward the psychosocial development of the character. Charlie is the main character in the novel, and it is indicated that he fails to pass the crisis in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development. The traumatic experience in his childhood becomes the hindrance for him to solve the problem in the stage

   

of Identity vs. Role confusion. As the consequence, he also fails to deal with the crisis in the following stage.

B. The Focus of the Research

Based on the previous explanation, the researcher wants to reveal the psychosocial development of the main character in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The novel portrays the life of a teenage boy named Charlie who has some traumatic experiences, and the worst one is that he is sexually assaulted by his Aunt when he was a child. It becomes so hard for Charlie since his Aunt is the one whom he cares and loves. Moreover, he has two more traumatic experiences that influence his psychosocial development; those are the sudden death of his Aunt and his best friend. His traumatic experiences make him fail to solve the problem in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development. As the consequence, he grows to be a really quiet, shy, and pervert boy. In addition, he has difficulties in communicating with others and giving responds toward the social phenomenon around him. His failure in the identity vs. role confusion stage gives impacts toward the way he deals with the crisis in the following stage. As a result, he also fails to achieve the balance outcome in the intimacy vs. isolation stage.

The researcher employs psychosocial theory by Erikson to conduct the research focusing on how the traumatic experiences make Charlie fail to pass through the psychosocial development runs successfully. Erikson mentions that human personality development has to pass the eight stages of psychosocial

development, and in the novel the stages are experienced by Charlie. Therefore, Erikson’s theory is applied to analyze Charlie’s psychosocial development.

C. The Formulation of the Problems

The problems of the research are formulated as follows.

1. How do Charlie’s traumatic experiences make him fail to accomplish the basic strength in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development? 2. How does the failure affect his personality in the sixth stage?

D. The Significance of the Research

1. Academically, this research reveals some points about the traumatic experience and the effects of it upon the personality development of individuals. Significantly, it is important to know about the traumatic experience since there are many people who are not aware of the effects of it toward a person’s personality development. Thus, this research will give comprehension to people about how traumatic experience influences a person’s personality development.

2. Practically, this research will be an encouragement to others about the effects of traumatic experience that can be the hindrance for individuals’ to pass the personality development runs successfully. The understanding about the personality development that is influenced by social and historical factors will help people to be more aware that other people who have a deviant behavior must have a serious problem in his life related to the historical and social

   

condition around them. Thus, this research will give insight for people about the factors that influence someone’s improper personality development, which results in their deviant behavior. This research will also be a warning for parents to be more careful in guiding their children in the process of gaining self-identity, so their children will grow up properly, and be avoided from any psychological and emotional problems.

The relationship between literature and psychology is not directly seen by common people, but those two terms have a great influence for each other. In understanding the relationship between literature and psychology, it is needed to explain the definition about literature and psychology itself. Literature has many definitions since many professionals have different opinions in defining the meaning of literature. According to Eagleton (1996: 2), literature is not only about fiction or non-fiction, but also about how people deliver their thought and their imagination through peculiar ways of communicating into literary works or writings. However, most of the literary works depict human condition in real life or represent the life experience of the author. Whereas literature is the representation of human behavior in literary works or writings, psychology is the scientific study of human behavior, which includes attitudes, thoughts, and physical changes, as well as emotional changes in real life (McMahon, 1990: 5).

Nowadays, psychology can be applied to analyze literature because the characters in literature can be studied like real people. Therefore, there is an indirect relationship between literature and psychology because both of them are studying about human condition. The difference is that psychology studies human in reality, while literature learns human activity that is created by the author to represent the real life. Consequently, psychology can be the device to make the reader of literary works

   

understand what the author intends to say about human psyche phenomenon through their works that might possibly happen in real life. According to Wellek (1942: 81),

psychology of literature is psychological study of the writer, as type and as individual, or the study of the creative process, or the study of the psychological types and laws presents within works of literature, or, finally, the effects of literature upon its readers (audience psychology).

Wellek’s statement above strengthens the fact that psychology and literature have an indirect relationship. First, it can be said that literature is the product of human mind formed by the psychological process of an individual. Then, Wellek believes that the role of psychology in literature is to analyze the effects of literature or literary works upon its readers or it can be called as audience psychology. The effect itself is how literary works can give the reader enlightenment or acknowledgement about the life experiences happening to many other people without directly experiencing it. Also, a good literary work will take the reader to follow the imagination that has been created by the author. That is how the psychology of the audience is formed while they are enjoying literary works.

Psychoanalysis is a theory that is firstly introduced by Sigmund Freud in order to analyze literary works from the psychological view. Therefore, Freud is known as the founding father of psychoanalysis theory. Freud mentions that the human mind is constructed of three elements; those are the id, ego, and superego. Freud’s psychoanalysis is also famous with his exploration of the unconsciousness and theory that human being is driven by something that they have little or no awareness (Jess Freist, 2008: 29). In addition, Freud says that human personality development is

 

highly influenced by sexual activity in their childhood. According to Terry Eagleton (1996: 133), “Sexuality for Freud is itself a 'perversion' – a 'swerving away 'of a natural self-preservative instinct towards another goal.” This is knowingly called as psychosexual developments, in which there are five stages of sexual activities in childhood that should be passed by human beings through their development.

Freud’s theory becomes the most famous and influential theory for many professionals who develop new psychological theories based on his basic beliefs about human development. Erik Homberger Erikson (1902-1994) becomes the one who agrees the basic theory of Freud. Although Erikson agrees Freud’s basic theory of human development, he has a different opinion on some parts. Freud delivers his theory about psychosexual as the stage of shaping human personality or behavior that only happens in childhood. On the other hand, Erikson believes that human personality development is influenced by social and historical around the people itself. In addition, Erikson intends to say that the stage of human personality development is faced in life-cycle; those are the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. This is as stated by Jeisst Freist (2008: 249) that:

Erikson regarded his post-Freudian theory as an extension of psychoanalysis, something Freud might have done in time. Although he used Freudian theory as the foundation for his life-cycle approach to personality, Erikson differed from Freud in several respects. In addition to elaborating on psychosexual stages beyond child-hood, Erikson placed more emphasis on both social and historical influences.

One most important thing that differentiates Erikson’s theory of human personality from Freud’s theory is the concept of human ego. Freud places the role of

   

ego as a dependent part of human mind, which only has a function to balance the human’s id and human’s superego. It is because the focus in his theory is on human desire or the Id. On the other hand, Erikson puts the ego as an independent part of the human mind and plays the most important role in every stage of human socio-emotional development. According to Erikson (1968: 46), “the ego, the individual center of organized experience and reasonable planning, stood endangered by both the anarchy of the primeval instincts and the lawlessness of the group spirit”. Erikson’s statement convinces that the focus of his theory is about how the ego organizes the life experience of human being and how the ego and the social experiences work to build the human personality. Then, he expands his theory named psychosocial theory, which is accepted as Post-Freudian theory or psychosocial development theory with his eight stages of man’s concepts.

B. Erikson’s Psychosocial Development

Psychosocial is a branch of psychology that is concerned with social and historical factors as the elements in forming individuals’ personality. Erikson is the major figure who concerns on psychosocial development which believes that human being should pass eight stages of human development throughout their life-cycle. Each stage of the development will determine the people’s personality that might be performed. Erikson believes that human personality is not only influenced by biological factors but also influenced by social factors. Family is the first element that

 

brings up the individuals to develop their personalities in all stages of Erikson’s theory based on the innate factors and social factors.

It is as true to say that babies control and bring up their families as it is to say the converse. A family can bring up a baby only by being brought up by him. His growth consists of a series of challenges to them to serve his newly developing potentialities for social in-teraction (Erikson, 1980: 57).

As said by Erikson above, family is the first place of individuals to be brought up as their first time to try to interact with and learn to know the value of life. On the other hand, the family also learns new things from the presence of the baby. The baby always makes signs to the environment around, including the family, so it is required sensitiveness in responding the existence of a baby. The family has a big responsibility to guide the baby to grow up well. The result, whether the baby grows up well or not, indirectly shows the quality of their family in guiding their baby through interaction and communication. Therefore, in the process of development, the role of family is the most important factor required in guiding the individuals during their growth in order to prevent the failure that might happen to their personality. It is because Erikson believes that social interaction is the key in determining the human personality development, and it can be seen at first in the individuals’ relationship with their family as the background.

Then, Erikson also mentions that human growth consists of a series of challenges, which can be referred to the eight stages of psychosocial development. In addition, it also means that human’s personality is not achieved instantly, but still requires some steps. The steps are placed in Erikson’s development stages that occur

   

1). Epigenesis Principle is an idea developed by Erik Erikson that states that every organism is born with a certain purpose, and continues to develop how it was intended to in interrelation with its environment..

2). Locomotor is a category of motor skills, they are a group of movements in which the feet move to body from one place to another.

3). Sensory is connected with the physical senses of touch, smell, taste, hearing and seeing . 4). Social Capacities is the capacity of social systems to produce services and experiences.

in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Erikson believes that each stage of human development gives significant influences to the later stage. Thus, human development is occurring throughout the lifespan and influenced by social factor, and the outcome of each stage is not permanent but can be changed by later experience.

Erikson’s stages of personality development also refer to epigenesis principle1), which mentions that one component arises out of another. It has its own time of ascendancy, but it does not change the earlier component.

Somewhat generalized, this principle states that anything that grows has a ground plan, and that out of this ground plan the parts arise, each part having its time of special ascendancy, until all parts have arisen to form a functioning whole (Erikson, 1980: 53).

Each stage of development has its own crisis, and the task of the individual is to find the solution at the last. Erikson (1968: 93) thought that “a mature organism is not about developing a new organ but dispensing locomotor2), sensory3), and social capacities4) that are described in the child development”. It means that Erikson intends to say that human development is not only about the physical changes of human beings, but also about the development of human’s skills in recognizing and responding the phenomenon around them. For Erikson, psychoanalysis has a big role to give understanding about how individuals achieve personality which is formed by the experiences of inner conflicts and the manners toward the conflict that showed by individuals. The experiences of the healthy individuals will lead them to achieve a success in interacting with the environment around them. Meanwhile, there are many different cultures in the world that causing individuals achieving different

 

personalities following to the culture where they belong to be. The proper guidance in each stages or all epigenesis is important to guide them to have the proper personalities. Therefore, personality will develop based on the steps that are determined to the individuals’ readiness to be aware of and to interact with the larger institution.

According to Jess Freist (2008: 255), each stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development consists of two opposite interactions: a conflict between a syntonic (harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive). This opposition is usually called as contrary disposition. The word ‘syntonic’ refers to the positive disposition, and the ‘dystonic’ refers to the negative disposition. For example, the very first stage of psychosocial development, trust (positive) is opposed to mistrust (negative). Erikson uses the word ‘versus’or ‘vs’ in every crisis stage that consists of two opposing conflicts.

The outcome of the contrary disposition is called as basic strength. The basic strength is produced by the ego quality. Then, the outcome of the basic strength will indicate whether human development is growing healthily or not. When human fails to reach the balance opposition on each crisis stage or tend to be in one of the dispositions, it will lead them to have mental problems. Erikson calls an extreme tendency to the ‘syntonic’ as a ‘maladaption’, while the extreme tendency to the ‘dystonic’ is called as ‘malignancy’.

Erikson’s concept of the ego becomes one of the indicators that differentiate his theory from Freud’s theory. Basically, Erikson has the same opinion as Freud’s about

   

the concept of the id and the superego, but he has a different way in seeing the ego. Here are the concept of the id, the ego, and the superego from Erikson’s theory:

1. The Id

According to Freud, the id is derived from the unconsciousness of the human mind; it does not have contact with reality. The Id is famously known as the pleasure principle since its function is to satisfy human desire and pleasure. In addition, people are never aware of what the id wants or what the id says (Jess Freist, 2008: 27). In this case, Erikson accepts Freud’s concept of the id.

2. The Ego

The ego’s concept of Erikson is different from Freud’s. Erikson puts the ego of human being as the most important thing that plays roles in all stages of psychosocial development. Erikson emphasizes that psychoanalysis today is implementing the study of the ego, a concept denoting man's capacity to unify his experience and his action in an adaptive manner (Erikson, 1950: 13). Human’s ego is the inner factor that constitutes to the manner and then forms the later personality of the individual. Erikson mentions that the ego is endowed with some qualities, which emerge from critical periods of development. The qualities are such as trust and hope, autonomy and will, industry and competence, identity and role confusion, intimacy and love, generativity and care, integrity and wisdom (Erikson 1950: 221). Different from Freud, Erikson believes that the ego is influenced by historical and social factors. However, Erikson still has the same opinion with Freud about the function of the ego; it

 

balances the id and the superego and keeps it tuned to the reality. It is like what he reveals in his book,

Between the id and the super-ego, then, the ego dwells. Consistently balancing and warding off the extreme ways of the other two, the ego keeps tuned to the reality of the historical day, testing perceptions, selecting memories, governing action, and otherwise integrating the individual's capacities of orientation and planning. (Erikson, 1963: 175) Erikson says that besides balancing the id and the superego, the ego plays the most important role in human mind. The ego take a biggest part of human mind in governing almost all of the main concepts of human actions in life, such as: making perception, selecting memories, integrating individuals’ ability of orientation and planning.

3. The Superego

The superego represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality and is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles as opposed to the pleasure principle of the id and the realistic principle of the ego (Freist, 2008: 30).

From the description above, it can be seen that the human ego is the most important element in shaping human personality development. Therefore, Erikson’s theory focuses on the development of human’s ego, which grows stronger through the lifespan and form the identity of an individual. In addition, Erikson proposes eight stages of psychosocial that individuals must pass in order gain what kind of identity they will gain.

   

1. The Stages of Psychosocial Development

In describing human personality development, psychosocial development is the most important element. Erikson believes that individuals should pass eight stages of psychosocial development in order to gain their personality and a sense of identity. a. Trust vs. Mistrust

Trust vs. Mistrust is the very first stage of psychosocial development that occurs in infants, which is derived from the experiences in the first year of life (Erikson, 1980: 57). This first stage is the time for a person to interact with others and the most significant relation to interact with the caregiver or the mother of the individual. In addition, it is the first time for the infants to begin to trust others around them and achieve social interaction. The infants learn basic trust when they realize that their mother will feed them, and they give permits or respond to their mother comfortably without any anxiety. It is the first time when the infants achieve social interaction. Shortly, when the infants feel that they are cared by their mother or their family consistently, they have some reasons to trust and they have learned basic trust. Then, they will feel secure in their environment and it will lead them to have a widening interaction.

Basic mistrust is when the infants do not have confidence on the care or treatment that they receive from their caregiver, mother, or family members. The consequence of it lies in their wider interaction, in which the infants feel insecurities, anxiety, and fear to interact. However, the infants must develop both trust and mistrust in order to balance the healthy outcome of the personality. According to Jess

 

Freist (2008: 258), too much trust makes them gullible and vulnerable to the unpredictable world, whereas too little trust leads to frustration, anger, hostility, cynicism, or depression.

b. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

This stage is the time when individuals begin to be more independent and explore their abilities in handling their own problems. In addition, the individuals begin to discover their skills and make their own choices. According to Erikson (1968: 70), this stage becomes the time when individuals get ready to stand on his feet more firmly and describe their world as “I” and “You”, “me” and “mine”. It is also the time when they have ability to make decision about what they want to do and what they are supposed to do. The parents should support them to handle their problems, but still need to control their children in order to avoid failures, and then the individual will succeed in adopting their autonomy. The self-confidence is one of the outcomes of the positive disposition of this stage. On the other hand, if the parents do not allow their children to explore their skill and encourage them with the environment that they just begin, this makes them depend on others too much. As the consequence, they will suffer from shame and doubt and lack of self-esteem.

c. Initiative vs. Guilt

This stage occurs in the age of pre-school, when the individuals begin to explore more experience and build relationship with their school friends. Erikson (1968: 78) says that in this stage, individuals begin to learn to move around more freely, improve their sense of language where they can asks about many things, and expand their

   

imagination. The individuals begin to require a sense of curiosity about many things existing around them. During this stage, individual begin to plan activities and initiate activities with others. If given this opportunity, individuals develop a sense of initiative, and feel secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions.

If parents do not support their children’s curiosity or treat their question as if it is such a nuisance or embarrassment, it will lead the individual to feel guilty. Too much guilt in individuals will be the hindrance for them to cope with the society. In addition, their ability to initiate is disturbed by the feeling of guilt. However, some of guilt is necessary for the individuals in order to be self-controlled in doing their activities in this period. There must be a balanced outcome between initiative and guilt in order to lead them achieves the sense of purpose.

d. Industry vs. Inferiority

Industry is the period for individual to develop their competence and skills. Erikson (1968: 87) describes the stage as a sort of the entrance of life. The child wants to be shown how to get busy with something and to be busy with others. The individuals begin to go to school and have interaction with their teachers. Successful resolution of crisis at this stage is depending from the result at earlier stages. Therefore, teachers have an important role in guiding the individual to find their skills and abilities in certain competence. Individuals who achieve initiative will feel industrious and confidence in every step they will take for their future. On the other hand, if individuals are not encouraged the initiative, they will always feel under the

 

inferiority and even doubt their own skills and abilities. It happens because they have low self-esteem, which is reached in the previous stage when they feel guilty.

e. Identity vs. Identity confusion

Adolescence is the primary period when individuals transform from childhood to adulthood. The teen years are indeed a time of identity crisis, or in Erikson’s terms is a turning point of increased vulnerability and heightened potential (Erikson, 1968: 96). Therefore, it is the time for the young-adult to gain their identity, finding out who they really like to be. With the advent of puberty, adolescents look for new roles to help them discover their sexual, ideological, and occupational identities (Jess Freist, 2008: 263). At this stage, adolescents will expand their social interaction in a larger society or environment. Most of adolescents want to be recognized in the society where they belong to. Therefore, if they feel that they have been recognized by their society like what they have to be, it can indicate that they have been successful in gaining self-identity. On the contrary, if they fail to recognize their own identity, it could lead them to have identity role confusion. This ‘dystonic’ element usually can be seen if the adolescents do not know what they want to be when they grow up.

f. Intimacy vs. Isolation

Adulthood is the last phase after childhood and adolescence phases. The conflicts for individuals in this stage grow more complicated.In addition, this stage is the time when individuals begin to build an intimate relationship, such as a relationship with the opposite sex or marriage. Individuals also begin to work for their specified career,

   

and they should have certain purpose for their future life. It is the time for them to build a family from their marriage couple. Nonetheless, it happens only after a reasonable sense of identity has been established that real intimacy with the other sex is possible (Erikson, 1963: 101). If individuals succeed in passing this stage of intimacy, they will have a healthy and comfortable relationship. Meanwhile, individuals will feel loneliness, isolation, and depression when they cannot complete the stage of intimacy.

g. Generativity vs. Stagnation

During the middle adulthood, there are many wishes that should be accomplished in individuals’ life. Careers, relationships, and families are being the concerns in this life stage. However, the most important goal for adulthood in this stage is to establish the next generation. According to Erikson (1980: 103), the pervasive development underlying this wish is generativity. When adults fail to accomplish the wishes, they will feel unproductive or stagnant.

h. Integrity vs. Despair

Adults will achieve integrity when they see that their wishes in life are accomplished. In addition, a successful and a productive life also support them to reach integrity. On the other hand, when they feel unproductive in their life and feel guilty in the past, and think that they cannot accomplish their wishes, it will lead them to despair or become desperate to face the life. Erikson (1980: 104) suggests that despair expresses the feeling that the time is short, too short for the attempt to start another life and to try out alternate roads to integrity.

 

Figure 1. Erikson Psychosocial Crisis Theory of Human Development based on Chapman (2006: par.13)

Chart

Psychosocial Stages Life Stage and Relationships

Basic Strength 1

(Trust vs. Mistrust)

Infant (0-2 year) / Mother

Hope and Drive 2

(Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt)

Toddler (2-3 years) / Parents

Willpower and Self-Control

3

(Initiative vs. Guilt)

Preschool (3-5 years) / Family

Purpose and Direction 4

(Industry vs. Inferiority)

Schoolchild (5-12 years) / School, teachers,

neighbourhood

Competence and Method

5

(Identity vs. Role Confusion)

Adolescent (12-19 years) / peers, groups

Fidelity and Devotion

6 (Intimacy vs.

Isolation)

Young Adult (early 20’s) / Lovers, friends, work

connection

Love and Affiliation

7

(Generativity vs. Stagnation)

Mid-Adult (20’s-50’s) / children, community

Care and Production

8

(Integrity vs. Despair)

Late Adult (after 50’s) / society, world, life

Wisdom and Renunciation

2. Identity Crisis in Adolescence: Identity vs. Identity Confusion

Each psychosocial crisis has a significant role in the growth of human personality. However, from his description of all crises in each stage of human development, the one that becomes the most crucial period is the Identity vs. Identity Confusion, which happens on adolescence. Adolescence is the time of individuals to

   

grow up and develop to be young people followed by psychological development that begins to create their social roles. Erikson (1980: 94) emphasized that this period is the time when the childhood ends and the youth begins. This time, adolescents must establish a good relationship to the world and share their skills of communicating to the society. The achievement of adolescents in earlier stage will highly contribute for them in handling the crisis in this period. The result whether individuals’ personality grows healthy or not depends on how they handle each crisis of psychosocial development. Individuals who cannot handle the crisis in this period will fail to achieve the sense of identity. Consequently, those adolescents will be doubted in making decisions in their life because they do not have self-confidence.

Individuals should make a balanced outcome in each crisis in order to get the proper development of their personality. If they can manage it well during the crisis, they will accomplish the ego strength or a sense of identity. On the other hand, if the individuals cannot handle a problem in a certain stage, it will lead them to the failure at the end of the stage. The failure in one stage will create more complicated problems in later stage, which makes the individuals face more complex identity crisis. Therefore, the final result of individual’s in handing the problem in the childhood will determine the quality of identity crises in the adolescence stage.

Identity formation is the time when individuals have passed the identification phase in their childhood and begin to explore more experiences as adolescents. It is the beginning of individuals to identify themselves according to the society where they belong to. In this period, individuals will be recognized by the society as the way

 

they are or the way they have to become (Erikson 1968: 159). Based on Erikson’s description of identity formation, it can be said that social recognition is influential for individual in order to gain the sense of identity. Individuals identify themselves based on the society’s judgments about how they should be acted on their ways.

As the critical period of human development, adolescence is the time for individuals to explore more about the value of life in order to gain their identity. In this period, adolescents begin to ask “who they are” and “what they want to be in the future”. The process of exploring a sense of identity in this stage is called psychosocial moratorium. Erikson (1968: 156) mentions that psychosocial moratorium is the time when individuals have experimentation to find out the way they can fit in the society and being recognized as a part of them. However, there are some problems that possibly occur during the psychosocial moratorium. Individuals will achieve healthy personality if only they can overcome the problems in psychosocial moratorium; the problems are identity diffusion, identity foreclosure and negative identity.

a. Identity Diffusion

Identity diffusion is the inability of individuals in figuring out a sense of identity. They never be sure to act or react as what they want to, also they might overthinking on what they should take an action in certain occasion. According to Erikson (1968: 171), identity diffusion is usually accompanied by an acute upset in the sense of workmanship, an inability to concentrate on required tasks or in a self-destructive preoccupation with some one-sided activities, and an excessive awareness as well as

   

an abhorrence of competitiveness. In addition, adolescents who are suffering from identity diffusion usually have a difficulty in making decisions in their life. Those disruptions will make them feel difficult in forming relationship and having emotional disorder.

b. Identity Foreclosure

Identity foreclosure is when individuals define the values of their life too early without experiencing more about many other choices or opinions. It can be influenced by the circumstances and the beliefs of their parents. According to Tung and Sandhu (2005: 88),

“boys who prematurely commit themselves to life goals according to their parents’s expectation or according to the choices of other authority figures without realization of their true selves or without going through a decision-making process are more vulnerable to lesser psychological health.”

It means that individuals will define themselves based on how the majority commonly judge on how they should to be in such society. The majority itself can refer to people around individuals whom have a big influence to the individuals in making decision, such friends, family members, and teachers. In fact, parent become the ones who have authority and the most influential factor in leading their children to define themselves. For example, individuals will be forced by their parents to be what their parents want. Parents have their own opinion about how their children are supposed to be, and their children must follow them although they do not want to do so. They have no choice to act what they want to be, and they are sabotaged by the

 

circumstances. As the consequence, they will live with their self-image under the pressure.

c. Negative identity

According to Erikson (1980: 139), “negative identity is the loss of a sense of identity which often is expressed in a scornful and snobbish hostility toward the roles offered as proper and desirable by one’s family or immediate community”. Negative identity is formed by the individual as an effort to be recognized by the society, but they express it in the wrong way. Adolescents who form negative identity usually act as the opposite of what their society demand them to do. This can be called as denial action because an individual prefer to be a person who is not commonly acceptable in the society roles. For example, a boy who has ever been raped by other boys will choose to be a homosexual as the form of negative identity in order to release their pain in the past.

C. Background of the Novel 1. The Author

Stephen Chbosky is an American novelist who is best known as the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was first published in 1999. He also becomes the screenwriter and the director of a film with the same title in 2006. It is his first book that he delivers to teenagers, especially American teenagers. The book is popular among teenagers and awarded as the best-selling book. Since his first book is successful in the market, he then releases two next books entitled Rent and Jericho.

   

The story in his first book really depicts the life of adolescents that contains many conflicts usually occurring to most of teenagers. Consequently, it becomes a controversy since the book describes about sexuality and drug use as experienced by adolescents. However, the book still can grab an attention from many people who love the story and the positive messages of the book.

Chbosky’s inspiration in writing the book is from his own life experiences. There are some parts in the story that is inspired from Chbosky’s life in his adolescence. Many characters in the novel represent the people he has ever met in his life. For example, the character of Charlie’s English teacher, named Bill, represents Chbosky’s mentor who has big deal in his life. Besides, the story of the novel takes place in Pittsburg, where Stephen Chbosky is growing up there too. However, Chbosky’s in Beisch (2015: par. 4) admits that,

“in terms of it relating to my adolescence, I’ve always said that the book is very personal to me, but it isn’t necessarily autobiographical – not in the literal sense of the word anyway. I do relate to Charlie. But my life in high school was in many ways different."

Chbosky’s expression above tells that the character of Charlie is very personal to him, but it does not need to be categorized as an autobiographical novel since he has many ways different of life with Charlie. The character of Charlie is the representation of Chbosky’s hope about a character that should exist in the real life. Chbosky tries to focus on how people should struggle on their passion. In addition, Chbosky intention in creating the story is to make the reader feel like it is a reflection of their own life, not the author’s life.

 

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Charlie is a person who is in his transition from childhood to adolescence. He is a fifteen year-old-boy, and just begins to be a senior high school student. This is a story of what it is like to grow up in high school. Charlie always writes letters to someone who he never knows. The letters are singular and unique, since it covers everyday life of Charlie, his activities, his feelings, and his world. He observes everything around him and notes it in his letter. Charlie is a calm boy who feels nervous every time he meets new people in his life. Even, he only has one best friend named Michael, who commits suicide. Several weeks after his best friend’s death, he meets new friends named Sam and Patrick. Charlie’s relationship with his new friends begins to change his whole world. It is the time for Charlie to explore the life in his transition period as a way to identify who he really is.

Charlie lives in a family, which has a little interaction one to another. He does not have a serious conflict with his family actually; he just does not have a good communication with them. Charlie really loves his aunt, named Helen, the one who always makes him comfortable to share with. However, she has died after she bought him a birthday gift when actually Charlie was still in his childhood. After that, he is really upset and feels guilty of his aunt’s death. He becomes taciturn and introverted that makes his friends call him as a wallflower. During his adolescence period, with his new friends, he sees the wild world of American teenagers. He begins to know drug use, alcohol, smoking, sex, even homosexual.

   

Charlie finds many conflicts during his new world; it is the conflict in his mind actually. He has an unstable emotion; he has no confidence to build a relationship, and he is introverted. His best friends try to change Charlie to live his life. Actually, Charlie has tried his best to follow his friends, but deep inside his mind, he has pressures that make him difficult to be like other common teenagers. He struggles to overwhelm his anxiety and fear in which no one knows what the real problem on him is. At the end chapter of the novel, it is revealed that Charlie has ever been sexually assaulted by his beloved aunt. This fact is the reason that influences his personality to grow unhealthy because of the feeling of fear and anxiety after the abuse.

Finally, Charlie is hospitalized for two months and treated by his psychiatrist. He then stops writing letters to anonymous. His family has known his problem, and helps Charlie to overcome his trauma. He feels excited to go to sophomore year high school without any worry. He also realizes that it will be too busy for him to write letters, because he prefers to participate than just observe.

D. Previous Research Findings

There are two records of literary researches that focus on psychosocial analysis, socio emotional development and adolescence identity at study program of English Language and Literature in Yogyakarta State University. The first thesis is entitled The Psychological Effect of World War II on Ira Hayes & John Bradley’s Character in James Bradley’s Flags of Our Fathers by Eka Setiawati (2011). The thesis focus on describing the psychological matter experienced by the main character after the

 

world war and how the character deal with the traumatic experience related to Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. The results of the research show that there is two psychosocial crises suffered by the main characters according to Erikson’s psychosocial development; those are Intimacy vs. Isolation and Generativity vs. Stagnation.

The second is entitled Identity Crisis of The Second Generation of Asian-Indian Americans as Reflected in Lahiri’s The Namesake by Anestia Fiddin (2013). This research focuses on identifying the identity crisis that experienced by the main character in the novel and the impact of the crisis toward the character’s personality development related to Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. The result of the research is that there are three problems occurring on the main character in the novel, those are identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, and negative identity. As the consequences, there are three malignancies that happen on the character as the impact of the identity crisis in adulthood stage; those are intimacy crisis, identity confusion, and distantion.

The theory of the previous research finding is the same as the theory used in this research that Erikson’s psychosocial development focuses on socio emotional development. Conversely, this investigates The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This research aimed to identify the failure in the process of psychosocial development and the impact of the failure on the main character personality in the novel as the effects of traumatic experiences using Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. Psychosocial development is applied in the

   

research to show the causes and the impacts of the failure in the Erikson’s fifth stage of development toward the character of Charlie. There has not been a previous study on Chbosky’s The Perks of Being A Wallflower conducted by either students or lecturers in the English Department of Yogyakarta State University.

E. Conceptual Framework

Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower shares to the readers about the teenagers’ life in America. The main character in the novel is Charlie, who is in his growing up period to find his identity. Charlie is a boy who faced so many conflicts in his life, whether with his friends, family, or even himself. Charlie experiences some traumatic experiences in his life such sexual assault from his beloved aunt, the sudden death of his aunt and his best friend. Charlie is trying his best to deal with those bad experiences, but he failed. The researcher identifies how traumatic experiences fail Charlie to accomplish the basic strength in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development and the effect of the failure toward his personality in the following stage.

The researcher applies Erikson’s psychosocial theory to answer the research questions. This theory believes that each person experiences eight psychosocial crises which help to define his growth and personality. Each stage consists of problem that must be faced. The more an individual resolves the crisis successfully, the healthier of psychological development will be.

   

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework

Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (words, phrases, clauses,

sentences, discourse) Erikson’s Psychosocial

Development

Eight Stages of Development: 1. Trust vs. Mistrust

2. Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

3. Initiative vs. Guilt 4. Industry vs. Inferiority 5. Identity vs. Role

Confusion

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation 7. Generativity vs. Stagnation

Identity vs. Identity Confusion

Intimacy vs. Isolation

1. To reveal how traumatic experiences make Charlie fail to accomplish the basic strength in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development.

2. To analyze how the failure affects Charlie’s personality in the sixth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial

33

This research was a qualitative research and the results of the research were data in the form of expressions instead of numbers. Qualitative research aims to develop an understanding about social phenomena in the world, such as identifying why things are the way they are (Yorkshire, 2009: 7). The first step required in this qualitative research was doing close reading to the given text and figuring out every details in the text that supports the data of the research. Then, the researcher interpreted the meaning of the text guided by the theory used in order to answer the research questions.

The data of this research could not be measured numerically. Therefore, a descriptive-qualitative method was employed to analyze the data of the research. The data were used to describe the phenomena as the effects of traumatic experiences toward adolescence’s psychosocial development as depicted in Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The descriptive-qualitative method helped the researcher explain the complexity of the meaning of the data in order to make the readers understand it.

B. The Data and Sources of Data

The primary source of this research was The Perks of being a Wallflower, a novel written by Stephen Chbosky and published in 1999. The novel was composed of four

 

parts excluding epilogue and the story is formed in letters. The researcher read and scrutinized the script comprehensively. The novel tells the fictional story of a grown up boy who experience identity crisis during his personality development. This novel provides main data of the study in the form of sentences and expressions reflecting the topic of traumatic experience and personality development. Furthermore, the data taken helped the researcher to answer the research questions (1) how traumatic experiences make Charlie fail to accomplish the basic strength in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development, (2) how does the failure give impact toward Charlie’s personality in the sixth stage of Erikson’s theory.

C. Research Instruments

The research instrument of this research was the researcher herself, who played an important role in analyzing the data on the novel. According to Creswell (2014: 185), the researcher as the key of the research instrument collects the data by examining documents and observing behavior. A secondary instrument is also possible to be used in collecting the data, but the researcher is the one who gather the information. The researcher collected, categorized, and interpreted the data from the novel to get meanings in accordance with the topic of the research. The interpretation and analysis of the researcher on the data were highly needed in order to guide the reader to get a deep understanding about the social phenomenon depicted in Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

   

A table sheet was also needed as the secondary instrument to make the researcher easier in collecting the data during the research process. All of the data that could be analyzed were recorded in the table sheet. The table sheet also helped the researcher classify the data into categories.

D. The Technique of Data Collection

The research data were taken by reading the novel carefully and noticing every detail that would be analyzed. In this research, the researcher was doing close reading to Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The next step was re-reading the novel comprehension and taking notes of the data from the novel. Then, the researcher interpreted the data from the novel and categorized the data in order to answer the research questions. The last, the researcher identified the data based on each categorization. To answer the first research question, the data were categorized into three parts of Charlie’s failure in the fifth stage of Erikson’s Psychosocial Development; those were identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, and negative identity. The second categorization was related to the effects of the failure to Charlie’s personality in the later stage of the development; those were intimacy and isolation.

The researcher used a data sheet for facilitating the work during the process of data collection. The data sheet helped the researcher to record all the data found in the text. The forms of the table sheet are displayed in Table 1 and Table 2 below.

 

Table 1. The Table List of the Data for the Effects of Traumatic Experiences that Fail Charlie to Achieve the Basic Strength in the Fifth Stage of Erikson’s Psychosocial Development

Table 2. The Table List of the Data for the Effects of the Failure toward Charlie’s Personality in the Sixth Stage

No Category Data Indicators Explanation Page

1. Isolation The last time I had a friend over to dinner was Michael last year. We had tacos. The really great part was that Michael stayed over to sleep. We ended up sleeping very little. We mostly just talked about things like girls and movies and music. The one part I remember

The

feeling of loneliness

Michael is the only best friend Charlie ever had for a year. It shows that he does not have a good interaction with others so that he has no friends. Charlie lives without real friends for a year.

55

No Category Data Indicators Explanation Page

1. Identity Diffusion

It started yesterday at home. I don't like my birthday. I don't like it at all. I went shopping with my mom and sister, and my mom was in a bad mood because of parking spaces and lines. And my sister was in a bad mood because she couldn’t buy her secret boy a present and hide it from Mom. She would have to come back herself later.

Acute Upset

Charlie does not think that his birthday is special, even he gets deep down and sad when he notices that his birthday is about to come. The possible reason for Charlie to hate his birthday is because he has unexpected memories of his birthday that makes him really regrets about it.

   

distinctly was walking around the neighborhood at night. My parents were asleep along with the rest of the houses. Michael looked into all the windows. It was dark and quiet.

E. The Data Analysis

In analyzing the data from Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the researcher employed a content analysis technique. As mention by Tesch via Wahyuni (2012: 122), content analysis technique focuses on the characteristics of language as communication with attention to the content or contextual meaning of the text. A content analysis method was the most appropriate method used in this research in order to help the researcher describe and interpret the data of the research.

The researcher needed to do several steps in analyzing the data from Chobsky’s The Perks of being a Wallflower in order to get the data interpretation as well. The steps are presented as follows.

1. Reading and re-reading Chobsky’s The Perks of being a Wallflower in order to get a deep understanding of the data content.

2. Classifying the data, which were related to the research questions, namely about traumatic experiences and the effects of traumatic experiences toward human psychosocial development. The insignificant data were dropped.

 

3. Interpreting and scrutinizing the meaning of the data in line with the topic discussion in this research. The interpretation and analysis of the researcher were important to achieve the research objectives.

4. Checking the measure of trustworthiness by triangulation process.

5. Making some conclusions based on the analysis that had been done to the data of the research. The conclusion aimed to know whether the research objective is really achieved or not.

F. Trustworthiness

According to Guba, via Shenton (2004: 63), the trustworthiness of the data is important to be demonstrated during the research process in order to make sure that the research is trusted. The criteria to check the trustworthiness are credibility, dependability, transferability, and conformability. The credibility is aimed to measure the intention of the research. The research is credible when the data of the findings are in accordance with the research objectives. The dependability refers to the instrument or the data itself, whether it can be used to multiple occasions or not. Transferability is the prospect whether the research can be applied on the other same phenomenon or not. Meanwhile, conformability is to make sure that the researcher is neutral and the research is objective.

The researcher also applied triangulation to check the credibility of the data whether the research is on the right line or not. In observing the credibility, the researcher conducted peer review. In this research, the researcher chose three of her

   

friends who are the students of English Language and Literature to check the data. In addition, the researcher also discussed her analysis with her first and second thesis consultants to get suggestions and inputs related to the analysis.

G. Analytical Construct

Table 3. The Analytical Construct of the Data for Charlie’s Failure in the Fifth Stage of Erikson’s Psychosocial Development

Category Definition Indicators

Identity Diffusion

Identity diffusion is when an individual lack of self-definition and direction of life.

a. Acute Upset: Charlie suddenly feels

extreme regret on something he just done and it leads him to get deep sadness.

b. The inability to concentrate: Charlie loses his focus every time he remembers something that irritates his feeling.

c. The excessive of self-awareness:

Charlie evaluates and compares himself as a person who is not as good, as intelligent, and as attractive as other people.

d. The inability to make a decision:

Charlie cannot make a correct decision in facing many possible choices that must be choose in his life.

Identity Foreclosure

Identity foreclosure is when parents and society play the most important role to influence an individual in making decision in order to gain their self-identity. An individual also do not exploring more opinion while gaining their identity.

a. Interruption of exploring self-potential: Charlie does not consider himself as a potential person.

b. Premature establishment of a sense of identity: Charlie unconsciously giving and receiving judgment on himself which contributes to his definition of self.

c. Excessive involvement of parents:

 

his parents in making a choice in his life.

Negative Identity Negative Identity

Negative identity is when an individual showing the opposite act or behavior that is not expected by his family and social rules.

a. Performance of undesirable choice of an action to gain an acceptable identity. b. A denial action toward the rule in

family.

Table 2. The Analytical Construct of the Data for the Impacts of Charlie’s Failure toward His Personality

Category Definition Indicators

Intimacy Individuals’ readiness to engage with the society, build more intimate relationship, and productive in work.

a. Participation in groups: Charlie begins to share and join with larger interaction in groups.

b. Encouragement in a worthless relationship: Charlie establishes a relationship with others without true fusion.

Isolation Individual unable to

enjoy his/her responsibilities as adult

to play a part in society and cannot achieve an intimate relationship with other sex.

a. The feeling of loneliness: Charlie feels hopeless and unhappy because he does not connect with other people.

b. Alienation: Charlie separates himself from the environment around him in order to avoid problems in his life. c. Depression: Charlie is haunted by the

very tired feeling of unpleasant memories he ever experience.

41   

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

This research attempts to identify the failure of the psychosocial development of an adolescent that is portrayed in Chbosky’s The Perks of being A Wallflower. Hence, the researcher only involves Charlie as the leading character that is assumed as an adolescent who experiences failures in his psychosocial development. Erikson’s psychosocial development is employed to guide the researcher in answering the research objectives related to Charlie’s failures.

In this chapter, the researcher describes the findings of the research, which are divided into two sub-chapters. The first sub-chapter answers the first research objective that is about Charlie’s failure in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development. It is marked by three problems ascending in his psychosocial moratorium, which are identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, and negative identity. The second sub-chapter answers the second research objective about the impacts of Charlie’s failure toward his personality in the sixth stage, Intimacy vs. Isolation. In addition, the researcher also provides one part that explains the traumatic experience and other supporting factors as the causes of Charlie’s failure in achieving his proper personality development.

A. Charlie’s Failure in the Fifth Stage

Erikson with his psychosocial development theory intends to say that human personality is highly influenced by the social and historical factors. It is in line with Freist (2008: 249) who states that “in addition to elaborating on

psychosexual stages beyond child-hood, Erikson places more emphasis on both social and historical influences.” Therefore, the ability of individuals to integrate with society and history in their environment will determine whether they will grow to have a healthy personality or not. The society will accept individuals based on the way they react, behave, and think about things in accordance with the standard adopted in that environment.

In addition, in his theory, he emphasizes that there are eight stages of human personality development through which individuals pass. Erikson puts the term ‘versus’ to link the two opposing conflicts in each stage: the positive ‘versus’ the negative. Each stage has its own role, and the outcome of the earlier stage will contribute to the skill of individuals in handling the later stage. The task of individuals is to make a balanced outcome in every stage. A healthy personality can be indicated from the result, whether individuals can make a balanced outcome or not.

Identity vs. Role confusion is the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development, and it is the most crucial period than the other stages. Individuals will face the fifth stage when they become adolescents. Adolescents are demanded to achieve the sense of identity as the basic strength at this stage. Thus, individuals need to explore a sense of identity in this stage, which is called as psychosocial moratorium. Erikson (1968: 156) says that psychosocial moratorium is the time when individuals have experimentation to find out the way they can fit in the society and be recognized as part of them. However, there are some problems that occur during this stage; which are (1) identity diffusion, (2) identity

   

foreclosure, and (3) negative identity. The attainment in dealing with this stage is indicated by the readiness of individuals to have larger interaction and communication in their society. On the other hand, if adolescents fail to accomplish the basic strength in this stage and experience the problems in their psychosocial moratorium, they will suffer from the role confusion.

In this study, the researcher only observes one leading character that is identified as a person named Charlie, who fails to achieve the sense of identity in his life. His unhealthy personality can be seen from his failure in handling the problems in moratorium as mentioned previously. To scrutinize the research on Charlie related to his failure, the researcher separates this discussion into the category below:

1. Identity Diffusion

Identity diffusion is the first conflict in psychosocial moratorium, which refers to the inability of individuals in figuring out a sense of identity. Erikson (1968: 171) mentions that identity diffusion is always accompanied by (a) acute upset, (b) the inability to concentrate, (c) the excessive self-awareness, and (d) the inability to make a decision. All of the disruptions usually occur to adolescents who live in an insufficient family or an environment that does not give them positive influences for their psychological development. As the consequence, individuals will lose their social play in the environment around them.

a. Acute upset

In the narrative, Charlie represents the life of adolescent who lives in an environment that does not fulfill his growth necessities and it leads him to experience the failure in his psychosocial development. As a boy who has been indicated to be an adolescent, his first failure in achieving a sense of identity can be seen when the feeling of acute upset often haunts him. Adolescents who suffer from identity diffusion will easily feel acute upset at every little thing that irritates his feelings. It often appears when adolescents remember the awful event they once experienced. In this case, Charlie is easily drowned to the feeling of acute upset because there are so many unpleasant memories of his life. As the consequence, Charlie’s life is either full of regret or full of sadness; he feels unhappy with it.

It started yesterday at home. I don't like my birthday. I don't like it at all. I went shopping with my mom and sister, and my mom was in a bad mood because of parking spaces and lines. And my sister was in a bad mood because she couldn’t buy her secret boy a present and hide it from Mom. She would have to come back herself later.

(Chbosky, 1999: 76) It is quite ridiculous when Charlie says that he hates his birthday very much. Normally, adolescents will hold a big party to celebrate every special moment in life, especially birthday. However, it is different with Charlie since he does not think that his birthday is special. Even gets deep down and sad when he notices that his birthday is coming up. The possible reason for Charlie to hate his birthday is because he has unexpected memories of his birthday that make him really regret it. In Charlie’s case, he always remembers the death of his Aunt because of a terrible car accident that happens at night before his family celebrate his birthday.

   

Individuals who cannot deal with their horrible memories in the past will find it difficult to face the next phase of life that may involve a more complex problem. It resembles the epigenetic principle of Erikson, who believes that human development occurs throughout the lifespan, so that how individuals deal with the past will influence the way they face the next task in the next phase of life.

The feeling of acute upset also results in anxiety toward Charlie’s sense of identity. Charlie’s anxiety never sets him free to share with others. He always feels insecure to introduce himself to someone new. It can be seen when he tries to hide his identity from the one he sends his letters. “Please don't try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really don't want you to do that (Chbosky, 1999: 2).” This expression indicates that Charlie conceals his identity to a person he writes the letters for because he realizes that the letters contain his secrets and those are all the shame for him. He never shares his problem with people around him, but he speaks everything in the letters to relieve his pain. He really worries that anyone gives him bad remark and cannot accept him as the way he is after knowing the truth about him who may be perceived as weird and unusual in his society. It portrays that most adolescents feel worried that all of their weirdness will make them fail to integrate with the society. One thing that becomes the hindrance for adolescents to fit in the society is the fear of the failure itself. Moreover, it just makes the condition worse.

b. Inability to Concentrate

Charlie’s acute upset and anxiety lead him to the inability to concentrate. Every time he feels anxious, his mind suddenly sweeps away somewhere, thus he

loses focus. The inability to concentrate possibly happens to people who suddenly remember something that irritate their feeling, so that they lose their focus on everything they do at certain time. The passage below is the example when Charlie gets trouble to concentrate.

I am sitting in my dad's old bedroom in Ohio. The family is still downstairs. I really don't feel very well. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm starting to get scared. I wish we were going back home tonight, but we always sleep over. I don't want to tell my mom about it because it would just make her worry. I would tell Sam and Patrick, but they didn't call yesterday. And we left this morning after we opened presents. Maybe they called this afternoon. I hope they didn't call this afternoon because I wasn't there. I hope it's okay that I'm telling you this. I just don't know what else to do. I always get sad when this happens, and I wish Michael were here. And I wish my Aunt Helen were here. I miss my Aunt Helen like this. Reading the book isn't helping either. I don't know. I'm just thinking too fast. Much too fast. It's like tonight.

(Chbosky, 1999: 75) Charlie often feels scared without any certain reasons. This feeling strikes him when he is forced to stay a night in his relative’s house. He tries to reduce his worries by reading, but it cannot fix his feeling. Moreover, his worries affect his way of thinking, which turns too fast and loses his concentrations. From the dialog above, there is another fact that adolescents who have no one to share with will suffer more pressure in their life. They tend to hide their burden than share it with others for relieving. As the consequence, the pressure in their life arises, and it bothers their concentration in requiring the tasks of life.

Charlie’s inability to concentrate also can be clenched when he is about to have sexual encounter with Sam. His memory in the past suddenly appears and distracts his mind during his time with Sam. He feels like he re-experiences the traumatic event that is the same as what he is about to do with Sam, but with a

17. I'm sorry, but I have to stop this letter now.

But first, I want to thank you for being one of those people who listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with people even though you could have. I really mean it, and I'm sorry I've put you through this when you don't even know who I am, and we've never met in person, and I can't tell you who I am because I promised to keep all those little secrets. I just don't want you to think that I picked your name out of the phone book. It would kill me if you thought that. So, please believe me when I tell you that I felt terrible after Michael died, and I saw a girl in class, who didn't notice me, and she talked all about you to a friend of hers. And even though I didn't know you, I felt like I did because you sounded like such a good person. The kind of person who wouldn't mind receiving letters from a kid. The kind of person who would understand how they were better than a diary because there is communion and a diary can be found. I just don't want you to worry about me, or think that you've met me, or waste your time anymore. I'm so sorry that I wasted your time because you really do mean a lot to me and I hope you have a very nice life because I really think you deserve it. I really do. I hope you do, too. Okay, then. Goodbye.

Isolation Depression This letter shows that

Charlie is facing the hardest part of his life. He used to share and tell everything about his prblems through his letters. However, from the time he wrote the letter, he even cannot handle it anylonger. He needs to stop writing because it cannot makes him feel relieve anymore. The fact is that after Charlie stop writing, he loses his consciousness and hospitalized for two months because of his mental problem.

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    18. I was just kind of watching people, seeing who was in

love and who was just hanging around, and I saw that kid I told you about. Remember Nothing? Nothing was there at the football game, and he was one of the few people who was not an adult that was actually watching the game. I mean really watching the game. He would yell things out.

Isolation Alienation Most of Charlie’s activity is

observing people around him. He prefers to sit on some good places to observe people and give comments on them than greeting them or making interaction. He does not have enough confidence to be the first person who says hello to others.

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19. I don't know if that's good or bad. I don't know if it's better to have your kids be happy and not go to college. I don't know if it's better to be close with your daughter or make sure that she has a better life than you do. I just don’t know. I was just quiet, and I watched him.

Isolation Alienation Being quiet is the best

choice for Charlie if he is confused of something and does not want to find the solution or answer from the people nearby.

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20. I feel like a big faker because I've been putting my life back together, and nobody knows. It's hard to sit in my bedroom and read like I always did. It’s even hard to talk to my brother on the phone. His team finished third in the nation. Nobody told him we missed the game live because of me.

Isolation Alienation Charlie’s daily activities

have changed since he participates with his new friends at high school, but nobody in his home knows about it. H always spends his time in the outside, but now, he has to back on his old activities again, which are sitting in the bedroom

and reading a book. 21. I left school, walked around, and didn't get home until

one o'clock in the morning. When I explained to my father why, he told me to act like a man.

Isolation Alienation When Charlie feels like he

is in a big trouble, he does not want to meet anyone. He will avoid the person that makes him feels bad. He likes to be alone with no one, until he realizes that it does not fix the problem.

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22. When I lay down in bed that night, I put on the Billie Holiday record, and I started reading the book of e.e. cummings poems. After I read the poem that compares the woman's hands to flowers and rain, I put the book down and went to the window. I stared at my reflection and the trees behind it for a long time. Not thinking anything. Not feeling anything. Not hearing the record. For hours.

Something really is wrong with me. And I don't know what it is.

Isolation Alienation When Charlie is in a mess,

he just alienates himself from anything. He even let himself thinking and feeling nothing. He also wonders how he can be like that. He just notices that it is not a good thing.

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23. I wish I could report that it's getting better, but unfortunately it isn't. It's hard, too, because we've started school again, and I can't go to the places where I used to go. And it can't be like it was. And I wasn't ready to say good-bye just yet.

To tell you the truth, I've just been avoiding everything.

Isolation Alienation Again, Charlie chooses to

alienate himself from everything.

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    24. So, I decided to find another place to go and figure out

why people go there. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of places like that. I don't know how much longer I can keep going without a friend. I used to be able to do it very easily, but that was before I knew what having a friend was like. It's much easier not to know things sometimes. And to have french fries with your mom be enough.

Isolation Alienation For years, Charlie uses to be

alone without a real friend. But now, Charlie has understood how pleasing to spend the time with friends. So that, he feels hard when he has to keep away from his friends just to calm his mind.

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